Julian E. Barnes

These are installations the Russians and the Chinese use to intercept communications inside the U.S.

Hmm.

They are listening to SOUTHCOM.

They may be listening up at Central Command.

These are very important military bases, and the U.S.

wants them closed.

And this is a concrete ask, and it is something the Cubans could do, right?

Right.

This is a step that they could take—

There is a path to reduce that intelligence collection there to either close the base or limit the number of people there or kind of restrict it.

Well, the economic and political demands were a lot more vague.

But we are getting a sense of the kinds of things the U.S.

wants to see.

And they range from more extreme to easier things to do.

But...

They start off with reducing the power of the military industrial backed conglomerate that controls a huge chunk of the Cuban economy.

It could mean pushing more pragmatic, less dogmatic politicians forward.

And it also could be a step toward free elections, right?

Like you could see the U.S.

pushing for elections at the local level to make those more meaningful.